Puppy Love
by Steph5
Summary: She realizes that he isn't her first choice and, quite frankly, she probably isn't his, but she vents and he listens.


**Puppy Love**

**By Steph **

PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Summary: She realizes that he isn't her first choice and, quite frankly, she probably isn't his, but she vents and he listens. A complete and utter UC fic.

------------

Admittedly, the first time you meet Marty, you were not impressed.

He was so generic. And he followed Rory around like a puppy dog, hoping he could one day win her heart with bartending leftovers. That wasn't exactly a bad tactic; in fact, with the way Rory swooned over food, it could be a very effective tactic.

But Rory wasn't interested. Any idiot with eyes could see that. She was apparently still dating her hayseed high school boyfriend. And if not dating, then at least sleeping with him.

So Generic Boy, he of average height, weight, hair color and speech patterns, followed her around hopefully, apparently content being one of her many admirers.

Normally you wouldn't care about Rory's suddenly torrid love life. Normally you wouldn't care about the oh-so-generic frat boy wannabes sniffing around your roommate.

Except this one does not know how to take a hint. This one does not know when to leave.

-----

In your head, you start referring to him as the puppy.

He waits outside your apartment, usually with an overflowing bag of leftovers from fancy parties...pates, little canapés that don't taste too bad after reheating them in the microwave, or from frat parties...bags of barbecue-flavored chips and pretzel sticks. And he's always generous with the leftovers, always offering you some.

And he does nice things, you have to admit. He helped out at Asher's wake.

The puppy is nice, but the puppy is also in love with your roommate.

It's easy to be nice to someone when you're in love with her roommate.

One day you get to the apartment before Rory and he is, unsurprisingly, there, arms full of goodies.

When you tell him that Rory's not there and that you have no idea what time she's coming back to the apartment, he looks disappointed.

You expect him to leave, but he looks at you hopefully.

"I guess you're expecting me to let you in," you say. You are in no mood for him.

"You won't even know I'm here" he says and follows you in.

-----

Rory doesn't talk about him much. When you ask about the puppy, ask if she's going to date him or just let him follow her around, she waves her hand dismissively.

"I don't want to date him," she says as if the idea was utterly ridiculous. "He's a nice guy and a good friend. But that's it. And besides, he's not even interested in me that way."

At that, you have to roll your eyes.

For a supposedly smart person, Rory is so incredibly dumb sometimes.

----

Rory has dumped the hayseed. Apparently she had no use for Farmer John after she helped break up his marriage.

Now she's interested in Logan, the prick from the paper.

You do not get the fascination that everyone has with Logan, who you think is a self-absorbed asshole. You are, however, in the minority.

Even Doyle, who you used to have a modicum of respect for, trips over his own feet trying to impress him.

Poor Marty doesn't have a chance.

You hope, in a flash of unexpected compassion, that she lets the puppy down easy.

-----

You're in the middle of an unbelievably crappy day and Terrence is in rehab and you have no one to vent to.

The puppy is there at your apartment again, and waiting for Rory, you vent.

You realize that he isn't your first choice and, quite frankly, you probably aren't his, but you vent and he listens.

You tell him that Doyle screwed up the placement of your article in the paper.

You tell him that you saw Janet on campus today. Fitness Barbie was surrounded by an equally tan and blonde group of people, all smiling and laughing and Janet caught your eye.

And there was a second, just a split-second before she smiled and waved politely, where she looked terrified. Terrified of you.

You used to love the idea of people being terrified of you, but now it shakes you.

Are you that much of a horrible person that your former roommate, who is not exactly a shrinking violet herself, is terrified of you?

If cool, confident, Janet is terrified of you, you could only imagine how poor Tana would react to seeing you.

"I don't think you're horrible," he tells you and passes you an egg roll. "A little scary, but not horrible."

"Thanks," you say.

"Maybe you should talk to someone."

"Like a shrink? I've had some bad experiences in that department thank you." You do not elaborate.

"I was thinking more along the lines of friends or family members. Maybe a brother or sister."

You shake your head. "Only child. What about you?"

"I have a brother," he said taking another egg roll, "who is also kind of my cousin."

You're intrigued. Scandal in the puppy family? "What are you talking about?"

"I very recently found out my uncle is really my father, which means my father is really my uncle, which means that my brother is also my cousin. I think. It's still a little traumatic for me. I don't tell a lot of people."

"You told Rory," you guess.

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

"She was sympathetic when I first told her. And then later when I tried to talk to her about how weird my family had suddenly become, she fell asleep."

You roll your eyes. And suddenly you feel like you aren't so horrible after all..

----

The shift is slight, but eventually even you notice it.

Maybe it was your venting, your ranting that did it, but you two have begun talking.

Sure, you've talked before, but now you're really talking.

You talk to him a little about Asher and he listens, intrigued, but not with the "ooh, that's disgusting" look that Rory always puts on when you talk about him.

He talks to you about his family, and one day, bored, waiting for Rory so the two of them can go out, the two of you make a little family tree on your computer, so he can see how people he had thought were siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles are now related to him.

He looks at the printout, awestruck. "Man, my family situation is messed up."

"Whose isn't?" you ask.

"I'm home," Rory calls out."Sorry I'm late, Marty. Are we still on for a movie?"

"Sure," he says easily. He folds the printout and puts it into his pocket."Thanks."

"Anytime," you tell him.

For some reason you don't wish to explore, you feel a little disappointed when they leave.

-----

Terrence is out of rehab and back at your service.

He tells you that you need to get over Asher and start dating again. He tells you to put yourself back out there.

Terrence's advice leads you to Speed Dating full of morons and rejects who shouldn't be allowed to spawn. You're supposed to find someone in this crowd?

You are not that desperate.

At least Doyle is here.

If nothing else, you'll get some conversation out of this miserable endeavor.

-----

Well, you get something other than conversation out of Doyle.

You realize that having sex with Doyle is an out-of-body experience.

Not that in the sense that it is so wonderful, so mind blowing that you leave your body, because although it isn't awful it certainly isn't that wonderful either, but out-of-body in the sense that it's almost that like you are watching yourself having sex with him, rather than participating in the actual act.

You're having sex with Doyle. Why are you having sex with Doyle?

When you had sex for the first time with Jamie, you probably did it for the wrong reasons.

Understandable reasons, but wrong ones.

You had sex with him because you thought it was time. Simple as that.

You had sex with Asher because you loved him.

You still don't know why you're having sex with Doyle.

And you like to know why you do things.

Sure, you two had a long conversation at the singles event and sure, you basically initiated the whole thing, but you don't know the exact reason the two of you are in bed.

And you don't think you're enjoying yourself.

You close your eyes and try to think of Asher. Try to conjure up his face, his scent, and hope that this will be over soon.

Instead, for some odd reason, you think of the puppy. It is not Asher you see, but Marty, You think of Marty and imagine that he is the one who has his lips on your collarbone, his hands on your hips.

And that's all you end up needing.

---

You and Doyle talk to Terrence about the state of your relationship.

You have put all intrusive thoughts of the puppy out of your head and concentrate on Doyle.

The three of you (you, Doyle and Terrence) have a nice discussion and under the firm guidance of Terrence, you hammer out a rough dating plan for you and Doyle to follow.

Despite the not-so-impressive start, you feel cautiously optimistic about the plan.

About dating Doyle.

Maybe it could work. You two will just need to follow the plan.

-----

You're not as optimistic after the first post-sex newspaper meeting.

Doyle is so weird around you. He's not ignoring you; he isn't that callous.

It's more like he doesn't know how to act around you.

And you can tell that he is nervous, which on him, you find really unappealing. The sweating alone is a huge turn-off.

Sitting alone in your chair looking at him out of the corner of your eye, knowing that he's doing the same to you, you realize that you like him a lot.

He's really intelligent and unlike most guys around here he's knowledgeable about more than just sports and celebrity gossip. And you really enjoy talking to him.

You just don't ever want to sleep with him again.

Which makes you wonder if you really wanted to sleep with him in the first place.

You leave the meeting early.

You have a lot of things to think about and just want to be alone.

-----

The puppy is outside your door again.

"Great news," he tells you excitedly.

"You finally found yourself a fulltime babysitter?" you ask.

Not nice, but you're cranky and you need some alone time, followed by a double session with Terrence. You might even pull out your glue gun.

Adding to your crankiness is the fact that it is only when you look at Marty that you remember what you thought of when you were in bed with Doyle.

Who you thought of when you were in bed with Doyle.

And that makes you really, really cranky.

"Nope. Still looking for one," he said good-naturedly. "My great news is that I hit the jackpot today with leftovers. Chicken satay. With extra spicy peanut sauce. This is some high-class food."

"Look," you say angrily. "I can't do this today. The babysitting. You need to drop the latchkey kid act. Rory's not here. I don't know if she's home or at the library or just playing nice with Logan, but I can't keep entertaining you while you wait for her. So you'll just need to do your Rory stalking somewhere else and leave me the hell alone."

"Okay," he said, looking hurt. Looking very hurt. "Sorry to bother you."

You almost want to say something. You shouldn't have said that to him, but he is already walking away.

------

When Rory comes homes later, she knocks on your bedroom door.

"I was just hanging out with Marty," she tells you."He's really hurt."

"Huh," you say. "Did he catch you and Logan in the act?"

She rolls her eyes. "Why were you so mean to him?"

"He can't hang out here all the time. Just because he wants a crack at you doesn?t mean he's welcome here 24/7."

"He doesn't like me. Not like that."

"Right."

"I mean...maybe he did before. But things are different now."

"Why?" you ask smirking. "Because you're interested in Logan?"

"No. Because he's interested in you."

You snort. "Good one."

"I'm serious. He knows my schedule, Paris. He's one of my best friends here and he knows when I have classes. Haven't you noticed that he shows up here when you're here, not when I'm here?"

You still think she's full of it. "He just has no sense of time. Perhaps you should buy him a watch."

"Every time I'm supposed to meet him here, you two are always eating and talking. I always feel like I'm interrupting something. Especially lately."

"Have you ever considered that he's trying to make you jealous? Maybe it's his big plan to win you over."

She shakes her head. "But that's the thing. I'm not jealous. If you two ended up dating, I'd be happy for both of you. Well, I would be if you were a little nicer to him."

"That's very kind of you," you say, your voice dripping with sarcasm. "Thank you for offering me your leftovers."

She frowns. "Sometimes you're very hard to talk to."

"All part of my charm."

"Just go talk to him," she said.

------

You don't believe Rory. Not for a second.

But you still feel a little guilty.

You put down your glue gun and consult Terrence.

He tells you to suck it up and apologize.

And then he tells you he is going back into rehab.

----

You decide to suck it up.

That night, you go to apologize to the puppy.

You go to his apartment, try to concentrate over the Linkin Park his idiot roommate is blasting.

At least the roommate isn't eavesdropping.

No, there is only Marty watching you warily, arms crossed against his chest.

"Look," you say, "Sometimes I say things that I don't mean. Sometimes I take things out on people who don't necessarily deserve it. Sorry about that."

He doesn't say anything so you keep talking. "I shouldn't have said that about babysitting you."

You take a deep breath. "I like talking to you."

"Yeah," he says sighing, conceding. "I like talking to you too. Not sure why though."

Good. Progress. "Well then," you say." I hope that we'll do it again." You extend your hand for him to shake.

He looks at you strangely before shaking it. "Alright."

"Well..." you begin.

But you forget what you were going to say, because he closes the space between you and he kisses you.

"What are you doing?" you ask him as soon as he stops.

He looks at you like you're an idiot. "It wasn't apparent?"

"No. I mean yes, I knew what you were doing. I suppose the more appropriate question is why you were doing it."

"Oh," he says. "I don't know why."

"Oh," you say."Maybe you shouldn't do things like that if you don?t know why you're doing them."

"You're probably right," he agrees before kissing you again.

This time you kiss him back. Which surprises you.

"Well then," you say, feeling flustered. "Thank you for your time."

"Can I come by tomorrow?" he asks.

"Okay," you say, still a little flustered. What just happened?

"I'll bring food," he says.

"Alright."

He smiles, a little shyly, and closes the door.

You walk back to your apartment, still dazed.

If only Terrence hadn't been forced back into rehab.

You have the oddest feeling that he would be proud of you.

**The end**


End file.
